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Democratic Lawmakers Query Homeland Security Secretary on Chlorine Trains in Washington By Joe Fiorill, Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — Rail operator CSX has for seven months been voluntarily rerouting shipments of chlorine and other toxic materials to avoid the U.S. capital, but the Homeland Security Department appears never to have considered requiring the company to make the measure permanent, House of Representatives Democrats said today (see GSN, Oct. 26). Activists had complained of ambiguity about whether CSX had resumed shipping the materials through the city following a temporary suspension enacted after the March 11 train attack in Madrid. In a letter sent Friday to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, three Democratic members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security said “numerous unclassified meetings and telephone conversations conducted by our staff” indicated that CSX has been voluntarily rerouting the shipments for seven months and that Homeland Security has no plans to make such a step mandatory or permanent. “It may be Halloween,” Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement released with the letter, “but that is no excuse for neglecting one of the most straightforward methods of removing the most catastrophic consequences of a terrorist attack on shipments of highly toxic materials. Even the railroad itself has evidently concluded these shipments are too dangerous to send through our nation’s capital.” District of Columbia Council Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Kathy Patterson said in an interview today that she has “no corroboration” of the three representatives’ information about voluntary rerouting by CSX. “It would be good to have that corroborated,” Patterson said, and “it would be good for it to be permanent.” CSX, Select Committee on Homeland Security Republicans and the Homeland Security Department did not respond to requests for comment. The CSX trains pass through the heart of Washington, and some estimates indicate a chlorine cloud from a ruptured tanker could endanger thousands of lives within minutes (see GSN, Oct. 20). Homeland Security is set this month to release a long-awaited security plan for the shipments, which environmental and consumer groups and local politicians say terrorists could use as chemical weapons by attacking one of the rail tankers. Ridge said Saturday that the department “will work with” cities to reroute some hazardous-materials rail shipments in response to the latest videotaped threats from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Patterson and fellow council member Phil Mendelson wrote Ridge today to thank him for acknowledging the danger posed by the shipments and to call for mandatory steps to protect Washington. “Please understand that in the absence of federal action to address the constant danger posed by hazardous cargo shipments through Washington, D.C., local officials must and will take action,” the council members wrote. Mayor Anthony Williams said at a hearing last week of the council’s Judiciary Committee that he could be persuaded to sign new legislation on the matter. The local legislators and members of Congress such as Markey have championed permanent rerouting, while the rail industry and some officials in President George W. Bush’s administration have cited economic drawbacks of rerouting and the possibility that the move would shift the risk of terrorism to other locations. The three House members wrote Ridge to present the results of their investigation into the matter and to seek an explanation of the department’s approach. “When your staff was questioned on Oct. 14, 2004, regarding its analysis of the economic and other considerations associated with rerouting, they were unable to provide a response and had no idea whether such an analysis had been conducted by anyone at the department,” wrote Markey, top committee Democrat Jim Turner (Texas) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.). “This left the impression that, rather than conducting a true vulnerability assessment that considered all possible security solutions, the department instead directed the staff to consider all options except rerouting as it developed its security plan,” they wrote. The lawmakers expressed support for using “increased patrols and new technologies” to protect the shipments but added that “it is simply not possible to secure every mile of track around Washington, D.C. (as well as numerous other cities nationwide), from attack.” “A rigorous analysis may show that rerouting is not always the complete solution. However, as a result of the department’s failure to perform this analysis, neither Congress nor the administration will have sufficient information with which to consider its benefits or limitations,” the Democrats wrote. The legislators called on Ridge to explain why Homeland Security did not consider rerouting, make available for questioning the department officials involved and provide information about the department’s decision-making process regarding the shipments, about the costs and schedule of the security plan expected this month and about planned vulnerability assessments of railroads around other major U.S. cities. Greenpeace Toxics Campaign Legislative Director Rick Hind said today that, although CSX now appears to have been rerouting the shipments around Washington since the Madrid attack, the company has cultivated “purposeful ambiguity” about the measures it was taking. Hind said in an interview that not making rerouting mandatory leaves open the possibility that the trains will again be routed through Washington once the electoral season concludes with the presidential inauguration in January. If the trains are not permanently rerouted to avoid Washington, he said, CSX and Homeland Security will have to rely on threat intelligence to decide whether and when to circumvent the city. “Intelligence is so discredited that rerouting for D.C. and other important areas is what is called for. The secrecy behind this is pandering to the industry and is not in the national security interests of D.C. or the country,” Hind said. Hind blasted Ridge for announcing measures that were already being undertaken “in secret.” “The fact that rerouting had been going on in secret for seven months is even more newsworthy because it catches him playing politics and misleading the public by falsely implementing safeguards that were already implemented,” Hind said. “It’s like requiring the sun to rise in the east,” he said.
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